Wash Away
by VirKatJol
Summary: John goes after Aeryn when she takes her prowler down to a planet. Set around Fractures. Written for livejournal community farscape land prompt challenge.


Title: Wash Away

Author: Virkatjol

Rating: PG-13

Summary: John goes after Aeryn when she takes her prowler down to a planet. Set around Fractures. Written for farscape_land prompt challenge.

Disclaimer: Not mine. WISH THEY WERE. PS I GLOMPED BEN LAST SAT.

A/N: his is for dizzydame you're my other half for writing and ILU! Thanks to valhallalilly for the BETA ILUALBxC+CSFM.

The prowler is here. It makes him breathe a sigh of relief. His chest quickly constricts again when he finds it empty. He's not really surprised. You don't just fly down to a planet to sit in your ship but he was hoping she might have, just this once.

It's raining hard, torrents of water beating against his back as John rushes into town. He has no idea where he'll find her.

Why did he have to push? He knows how she is. She can only take so much of a beating before she runs. He had her pinned. God, he was a dumb human sometimes.

His leather coat is keeping him dry. He found a fedora type hat in his quarters and that's protecting his head. He's pretty sure the last time he saw this much rain was on the planet with that bank. That was a lot of water, actually, this is probably worse…

John reaches the edge of town. It's nothing to write home about, even if the post office delivered. How is he going to find her? Where would she go? There's not much choice, luckily for him, there's a bar which looks like it's just getting revved up for the night, a church looking building, some apartments, market place kiosks, and a hotel.

The sky is darkening and all the stores look shut down. "I guess no one stays open late these days," He mumbles to himself. "The hotel it is."

He's sure she wasn't in the mood for people or other aliens so he eliminates the bar right off. If he's wrong he'll head back that way. She left Moya because she wanted space. Wanted to be left alone. Now here he was following her. Doing exactly what she thought she didn't want.

He'd given her a head start. Chiana had cornered him, forced him to wait. She told him that Aeryn needed her space, she needed some time. John had done what he could, he'd waited until his body wouldn't sit still any longer. Now he was pissed because he was having to look for her instead of being able to chase after her.

The hotel was cheap. Everything about it screamed not to stay there. In big bold letters the warning was flashing across his mind. The office was easy enough to find and he opens the door. A strange looking alien is behind the counter.

"I'm looking for someone." He stands in the center of the small office, dripping large amounts of water on the floor. It could probably use the cleaning, however.

"The whore house is behind the bar." The creature doesn't even look at him. "Bring it back here when you've chosen but I don't provide the entertainment."

"That's not… A woman, a friend of mine, I think she's staying here." John hopes he's willing to give out that sort of info. If not they're aren't that many rooms. The doors don't look that sturdy…

Now he grants him his attention. "What would that sort of information be worth to you?"

"It's worth a lot, but I haven't got means to pay."

"There are always ways to pay, just a lack of creativity when offering or trying to get something for free." The alien lets his eyes slide along the room. "Can you fix things?"

"I can try. But can I do it after? I really need-"

"It's taken you long enough to find who you're looking for-"

He's interrupted when Aeryn walks through the door. "I need-" That's when she sees him. "John."

He braces himself, every bone, every muscle, every fiber of his being is screaming at him to go to her, to take her in his arms and hold on. His brain won't let him. It's actually thinking.

"I was worried."

"I'm capable of taking care of myself." He watches her body recover from the shock of seeing him and returns to the state it was, a shivering mass. "Do you have any more blankets?"

She's freezing. He takes a closer look, her lips are a pale, pale pink, heading the direction of blue. Her skin is damp and small goose bumps mar her arms. The shirt she's wearing is soaked - nipples standing erect - and so are her pants.

"Give me the blankets." John's demanding. She's going to be hypothermic soon. "What room are you in?" He directs at Aeryn. She considers not telling, he can see the stubbornness in her eyes, but a shiver wracks her body and she tells him. "Go, I'll be there in a minute."

xxxx

The door is unlocked, fortunately, when he gets to her room. She's in the bed, huddled under the blankets and shivering like mad.

He almost berates her, but there's nothing that Aeryn hates more than being wrong. Except him reminding of her poor choice. Maybe that.

"Baby." It breaks him. To see her like this. Her eyes so filled with pain. A look around the shabby room tells him what he was hoping wasn't the case - she's still in her wet clothes. "You gotta get out of there."

She just shakes her head. "So c-o-o-o-old." Her teeth chatter as she talks. "Never b-e-e-e-en befo-o-o-re"

He doesn't waste any more microts. He's yanking the blankets away and pulling her to her feet. "You can't get warm when you are covered in wet clothes."

He tugs off her t-shirt. The material is like ice. It makes his heart stop for a moment. A flash of finding her here too late. She wasn't going to warm up that way. Her Peacekeeper training couldn't have been so poor. She just wasn't thinking. She was feeling. She hurt.

Her bra follows, it's just as wet. John tries to ignore her breasts. The perfect globes set high on her chest. Her nipples look painfully tight as the air caresses them. There's a moment where he just can't look away and then he breaks back into action. He unbuttons her pants and peels them off her legs. Her underwear goes right with them.

"How long were you standing in that rain?" He checks the bed she was in while he starts taking off all his clothes as well. She doesn't even notice, all she can think about is how cold she is. Her arms are wrapped tightly around her body trying to hold in her heat - what's left of it anyway.

"I-i-i-i don't know." She's shaking her head as if she can't remember standing in it at all.

The bed is damp so John tugs off all the sheets. The mattress is, surprisingly, clean looking but he lays down the top blanket. It has escaped her getting it wet. He tugs on her elbow and is about to have her lay down when he spots the bathroom. There are towels in there. So he has her stand by the bed while he runs to get a couple.

"Can you dry yourself a little?" She nods as he covers her with one of the towels. They're small, but so is she. He uses the other to squeeze water out of her thick hair. It would take so much longer to get her warm with the mass of dark locks still as wet as they were. It doesn't take long for his towel to become useless. It goes flying onto the pile of damp bedding as John tosses it across the room. She stills her movements and he grabs the towel from her wringing out even more moisture from her hair. "Okay, baby, lay down there."

Naked Aeryn. Naked Aeryn in bed. He groans at the sight, despite her predicament she's still Aeryn. She's still so beautiful. He's hauling the new dry blankets over to her and covering her body. Someday, he hopes, he'll get to appreciate it more. For now she needs to get warm.

He's taking off the rest of his clothes now, pants and boxers. He considers leaving the boxers on for a microt and then he sees her shivering and thinks 'the hell with it'. He climbs in behind her and gathers her into his arms. Presses every inch of her cold, damp skin to his dry warmth. He hisses at the first contact. She's normally a little cooler to the touch then he is, but this is like ice.

"Aeryn, you're so cold." Obviously…

He makes sure that the blankets that he's piled onto them are tight against them. No warmth is escaping.

"Talk." One word. A request. One that she's never really made, at least to him.

"You want me to talk?"

Her teeth chatter. "You're arguing?" If she wasn't so cold she would roll her eyes.

"I don't like when you run off-"

"Not about that." She swallows hard against the knot in her chest. She can't take it. The pain of being with him almost outweighs the pain of being without. It's not frelling fair. "Tell me about Earth."

"Sometimes it rains this hard there. Where I lived it would be warm rain, followed by humidity. Awful, oppressing heat. The rain brought brief relief. It was rarely cold like this."

"I just sat outside my prowler when I got here."

He's aware that she's taken the conversation over. But he doesn't care. He wants her to talk to him more. Instead of fighting, instead of pulling back - come at him head on. That he can take. He can play defense to her offense. He can let her enter his circle slowly. If that's what she needs, he can play it like that.

"Yeah?" John's arms loosen a bit, the heat is growing under the blankets and his hands start stroking along her arms, stomach and hip. He tells himself he's helping her generate more heat. She doesn't feel like ice any longer.

She sniffles, but her teeth no longer clack. "I didn't know what to do. I kept wanting to go back. But I couldn't... I couldn't let you have your way." His body stiffens behind her - pulls back a tiny bit. "You always get your frelling way. Not now John."

"Whatever you need Aeryn. Anything." He braces. If she tells him to go, he'll do it. He's already made a fool of himself. Head over heels in love with the girl who's in love with him. Well, not him, really. With the guy that looked just like him, acted just like him, loved her just like him. "I get that it's hard." Aeryn scoffs at his words, as if he couldn't possibly understand. John shouldn't have to remind her that he was in a similar spot not that long ago. He doesn't let her interrupt, not yet. "You died too."

She's quick to retort. "But I came back."

"But I'm here." He can't break through. She's not ready. It doesn't matter that they're naked in a bed together. That he's pressed to her - cock to ass, that his finger tips are resting on the mattress whispering against one of her nipples. None of that matters because she isn't ready. "Do you want me to leave?"

The silence drags on. He can't ask again. She'll have to answer. He won't badger it out of her. The pushing makes her angry. It makes her dishonest with herself. So he waits. He hears the choked sob and his arms ache to drag her back to be directly against his warmth.

"No."

It's barely audible but there it is. The answer he dreads turns into one he isn't expecting.

"What do you want?"

"I want him back." She turns her head into the pillow and wipes at her tears. "I want you to be him."

"I am." John pulls her close now, his lips brush her neck, just repeating the words over and over. "I am him. He was me. Just John Crichton - plague to your existence."

"Frelling right." She twists around then - pushes him onto his back and crawls half onto his chest. Her ear covers his heart and she closes her eyes. Her hand flattens against his stomach before sliding upwards. She touches him everywhere and he just lets her. Aeryn's palm glides along his bicep, down over his elbow and ends at his hand. She gathers his fingers to hers, playing with how she wants them tangled together before settling on palm to palm. Then she pulls their entwined hands up by her face.

The thought of more words leaves his mind as he watches her watch their hands. Hands that know her, hands that she knows. John decides that it's alright - the silence. She's opening up, slowly.

He's got no where to be. It's okay if she takes more time.

There's plenty of time right now - in this hotel room. The rain's not letting up so he will. Just for now.

The End


End file.
